Friday, April 6, 2012

Memories of ‘Melvin the Mallard’

OOIDA Life Member Gordon Alkire of Riley, KS, recently sent me a story about a
duck. So it’s Easter, and that made me remember this duck story. It all started
when he was reading the article “Sore
like an Eagle” in the August/September 2011 issue of Land Line. From there,
I need to let Gordon tell this in his own words. Here’s Gordon:

The eagle story caused me to recall an avian situation that happened to me
years ago. In 1976, I owned a ’68 Pete and was pulling tanks and flat beds. We
were using pumps to drain a catch pond at a closed meat packing plant in
Decatur, IL. We would fill our tanks at the pond and go to an underground
cavern and dump and return for another load.

While in transit with one of these loads a mallard duck flew into my truck via
the passenger window. The window was open, thank goodness. Quacking loudly, the
duck just flew in, sat down on the passenger seat, and refused to leave. I was
traveling about 30 miles an hour.

This duck was something else. To say I was taken aback is an understatement. It
scared the dickens out of me. There I was driving in traffic and trying to watch
out for the usual oddball car driver, and this feathery aberration flew in and
adopted me.

This duck was the usual colored mallard, blue and bright green. He was as loud
as a quacking foghorn. This duck trucked with me for about a week.

When not in the truck, it would follow me everywhere, kind of likea puppy duck. We were staying in the
Holiday Inn in Decatur – and when I went in, it went also, except when I went
to the dining room.

It was beginning to be a mascot at the Holiday Inn. The duck was a celebrity of
sorts. It would let people touch it and coo and ogle it as long as it could see
me. When I got out of its sight, the party was over and it went hunting for me.

While in the truck it would sit on the dash and look at everything going on
around us. The moving truck did not bother it. Even with the windows down it
did not try to get out or fly away.

The weirdest thing was whenever there was an officer or police car around it
would go crazy with the quacking. I thought I would go deaf in my right ear at
times. I could not stop it until the offending car or uniform left. I
guess you could say it was a quacking radar detector of sorts.

When I would get out to hook up pump hoses, it would sit there waiting for me
to do my job and return to the truck.

The motel people helped me keep an eye on it with food and water and some straw
for the bedding. It stayed in an open cardboard box at night in the room. And
if it needed or wanted to go out, it let me know by jumping out of the box
and going to the room door and pecking on it. This duck just blew everyone’s
mind including mine.

That duck adventure was strange but enjoyable. During that whole week, taking a
picture did not enter my mind. Thanks to the eagle story, however, it was nice
to remember this.

Melvin the Mallard: Wonder Duck – that’s the name someone came up with. I had
this feathered companion for nearly a week. We were a team, just doing our work
together, this mallard and me. One afternoon at the end of the workday, it
told me goodbye. It fluttered up to the dash by the steering wheel, looked at
me for a little bit, quacked and flew out the window. It circled the lot twice
and then headed off into the blue skies honking as it left.

About this blog

The Land Line Media Blog gives you an insider's look at the trucking industry and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told through the stories, anecdotes and opinions of the Land Line Magazine staff.